New Products Shown by Atari

The New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 7, 1987— The Atari Corporation, which has regained profitability largely because of the success of its 520 and 1040 ST personal computers, introduced a new ST today aimed at professional users. It also introduced a new low-priced laser printer.

The Mega ST takes up less space than existing models and is intended to bring the sophisticated graphics and sound capability of the ST to business users. By operating the laser printer from the ST's software, the price of the printer can be held to about $1,500, Atari said, allowing a complete desktop publishing system to be sold for about $3,000.

''This price point will be a breakthrough for desktop publishing,'' said Jan Lewis, president of the Palo Alto Research Group, a computer industry consultant. ''It's a wonderful value for the consumer.''

''Low-cost laser printers are not hard to build when you leave out the memory to do graphics,'' said Michael Murphy, editor of the California Technology Stock Letter. But, he added, such printers ''take forever to print out a page.''

Atari also announced price cuts of 20 percent on existing ST models. In addition, it introduced a computer compatible with the I.B.M. PC and a variety of new software for the ST.